Sergeant Kursk crawled close to the edge of the clearing and peered through the foliage in front of him at the gathered Tau warriors. Their vivid yellow armour stood out amongst the backdrop of dark green trees making them easy to spot. There were eight of them, all lined up in as if they were being inspected, none of them moved a muscle. He looked away from the Fire Warriors and towards his objective, a captured Imperial Landing pad. The large spherical pad was located in the middle of the clearing, it's ramp stretched almost five metres in length and was facing straight towards him. He glanced towards the four prone men behind him, their dark green Cadian uniforms were slick with dirt and grime making them blend in with the surrounding forest perfectly. He held up his hand to signal them to move closer, they carried out his orders willingly. As his men moved quietly towards him, he turned to face the closest to him, Corporal Vreck.
"I've spotted eight, to the right of the landing pad," Kursk whispered as he gestured towards the gathered Fire Warriors. Vreck looked towards the Tau and appeared to be thinking. Kursk continued on regardless.
"If we managed to get behind that wall over there we could have a good chance at taking out a lot of them with Morinth's grenade launcher," he said, motioning towards the low stone wall surrounding the right side of the clearing. As he said this Vreck looked up in disbelief.
"You're not actually considering attacking them are you?" Vreck whispered loudly "we're all tired, we haven't eaten in days, and we've got hardly any ammo left!"
He looked down at Vreck's malnourished face and pressed a finger to his dry lips, silencing him. A beam of light from the sun above filtered through the surrounding trees and illuminated Vreck's dank features, a look of sincerity was upon his face. Kursk looked down sternly at him.
"We will fulfil our duty to the Emperor or die trying. Understand?" Kursk said harshly.
"Yes sir," Vreck sighed as he crawled into the damp undergrowth of a large tree beside him.
Kursk looked back at the objectionable Corporal. He was right. There was no hope in them succeeding, but he had come too far to let the objective slip away. Countless amounts of men had been blasted into oblivion by the vile alien's weaponry, he and the few guardsmen behind him were all that's left of an entire company sent to destroy the Tau and capture as much ground as possible.
As the faces of his dead comrades passed through his memories an unbound rage filled his heart, he had to exact revenge, for the Emperor. The dreary look on his face turned to determination as he turned to address his subordinates.
"Morinth, you're with me. We'll go right and stay low."
"Yes sir."
"Vreck, you and Coulter go left, get behind the ramp of the landing pad and cover me."
"Yes sir."
"Vorkhonen, you're the best shot, I want you to stay here and pick off any Tau that stick their heads out."
"Yes sir."
"Ok, lets move, but be quick, I wanna be in cover before they even know they're being fired at."
As soon as Kursk finished talking, the guardsmen lifted themselves off of the damp forest floor and stormed out of the trees, firing off pot shots as they went. He saw Vreck, out of the corner of his eye, veer off to the left towards the landing pad with Coulter on his tail. The Fire Warriors were taken aback by the suddenly occurring threat. Immediately, they made a mad dash for the opposite end of the stone wall. Kursk rapidly sprinted over the gap between the tree line and the wall, a mass of grass and dirt was kicked up in his wake. As he approached the stone, he flung himself to the ground and skidded the last few feet in the thick mud. Morinth quickly followed, slamming his back up against the rough wall beside him. Kursk outstretched his laspistol over the top of the wall and fired a volley of shots. In return a trio of bright blue pulse shots flew overhead tearing into the forest behind him.
The earth around him was torn asunder as the Tau returned fire, chunks of the stone wall were blasted into submission by the powerful pulse weapons. He fired over the crumbling wall once again, the pathetic lasshots blasting mere dents in the ground compared to the pulse weapons devastating rounds. After what seemed like hours of continuous assault the pulse weapons finally subsided, an unnerving silence followed.
Kursk lay huddled in a ball at the base of the now ruined stone wall, his hands were crossed over his face, trying in vain to provide protection. Slowly, he removed his hands from his head, clearing his vision. The surrounding earth was scarred and dented in dozens of places. He glanced over to where Morinth was sitting, but what he saw sickened him to the pit of his stomach. A mass pile of bloodied flesh, entrails and armour was all that was left of Morinth, hit by multiple pulse rounds. He looked to the left of him towards Vreck and Coulter, they were cowering behind the landing pad with their hands over their heads. Kursk frowned at this.
"Get up you cowards!" He screamed at them. "Fire back!"
To set an example he raised himself from the mud and emptied the clip in his laspistol into the Tau on the other side of the clearing, two of the Fire Warriors were sent flying off their feet by the surprise attack. As Vreck and Coulter saw him rise to his feet and gun down the Tau they too stood up and set their lasgun to full-auto. The barrage of lasshots from the three Guardsmen sent the Fire Warriors diving for cover, the few uncoordinated return pulse blasts flew idly by.
Kursk slammed another clip into his laspistol and continued to fire at the Tau, another three Fire Warriors fell with a multitude of bloodied holes in them as they darted towards the tree line behind them. The tables had turned for the Tau; there were only three Fire Warriors left now, each hiding behind the small stone wall on the opposite side of the clearing. Each hiding for their lives. Hope filled his heart, with a bit of tactical thinking they could actually win this battle. But suddenly he heard the distant hiss of a jetpack and all his hope faded. As the sound got louder Kursk flung himself towards the ground and ordered his men to do likewise. He glanced up towards the horizon in anticipation.
The Tau Battlesuit soared up to the top of the tree line, blocking out the sun. It's right-handed plasma rifle hissed maliciously as it discharged rounds of steaming hot plasma into the Guardsmen below. Kursk stared on in horror as Coulter was caught out in the open by the plasma rounds, searing his flesh away in an instant. He fell to the ground, screaming in agony. The Battlesuit continued to fly down to the ground, constantly spitting plasma at the bewildered Kursk. It landed with a thud in between the Guardsmen and the Fire Warriors.
Slowly, it raised it's left-handed burst cannon. The targetors locked in with a click as it swayed from side to side, searching for the hiding Guardsmen. It noticed Vreck stick his head out from behind the ramp and consequently opened fire with the quad-barrelled pulse weapon. The forest behind Vreck was torn to pieces under the bombardment, a multitude of trees and branches were vaporised and severed from the rest of the vegetation. After the gun had silenced all that was left of the forested area was a pile of broken trees and shredded bushes. Kursk gasped as he realised that that was the area that they had left Vorkhonen in, he hoped he had gotten out of there before it was too late. The Battlesuit ignited it's jetpack again and took off into the sky. It soared over the top of Kursk, it's small red box-like head surveyed the area like a hawk. It spotted him almost immediately and raised it's plasma rifle in preparation. His instincts took over and told him to run like hell. Kursk wasn't one to ignore his instincts.
As he ran as fast as he could over the muddy grass towards the outlying trees, with the Tau Battlesuit on his tail, he heard the loud cracking sound of tree branches breaking and a low rumbling sound that was groing closer and closer. He was a mere three metres from the forest when the trees infront of him were violently brushed aside as the large metal hull of a Leman Russ came crashing through them, it's regimental markings akin to his. Kursk dropped down to his knees as a broken branch was flung at him, missing him by inches. The hulking tank's weapons turned skyward towards the airborne Battlesuit, it's lascannon lit up as it hurled bolts of light towards it's foe. Before it had a chance to react, the Battlesuit exploded in a spectacular display of flames and bright blue plasma as the shot hit it, sending it crashing towards the ground.
The Leman Russ closed in on Kursk, unbeknownst to the Guardsman lying in front of it. Kursk lifted himself from the ground and ran in the opposite direction towards Vreck, who had come out from his hiding place behind the landing pad and was shooting at the now fleeing Fire Warriors. The tanks turret swivelled with a deep humming sound towards the area of forest where the Tau had recently disappeared. It waited a second before firing the massive battle cannon. A deep resounding boom echoed throughout the clearing sending birds of all sorts scattering out of the surrounding trees, an entire section of forest was engulfed by coruscating flame, sending a multitude of ominous burning branches and upturned trees in every direction.
Kursk and Vreck stared in awe at the inferno, nothing could've survived the blast. The Tau were most certainly dead. The tank came rumbling up beside the Guardsmen and stopped suddenly with a jolt, it's top hatch swung open revealing a guant man wearing a Cadian officers uniform. He looked down at the two soldiers and a smile slid across his face.
"Thank the Emperor. I didn't think anyone else from the 53rd had survived," the man said with a hint of jubilance in his voice. "I'm Lieutenant Yevin of the 7th Cadian Armoured Division. And you are?"
"I'm Sergeant Kursk of the 53rd Cadian, sir," Kursk said as he saluted Yevin. "And this is Corporal Vreck." Vreck nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Excellent," Yevin said, beaming. "We picked up a burst-transmission about an hour ago indicating all surviving Imperial forces are to make their way to an evac point about four clicks north of here. I suggest we move quickly if we are to get there any time soon."
Kursk nodded in agreement and made his way towards a small ladder on the side of the tank. He clambered over the tracks on to the rear of the tanks hull. Vreck followed him and slumped down amongst a pile of steel crates. Upon seeing the two Guardsmen safe on the rear of the vehicle, Yevin retracted himself into the belly of tank and closed the hatch behind him. Vreck looked up at Kursk and smiled wearily at him.
"Do you think Vorkhonen is still alive?" he asked.
"Probably. Although he's most likely half a mile away now," Kursk replied as he let out a hoarse laugh. The tanks engines started up with a growl. Kursk shifted in his seat as the vehicle moved forward into the forest, trees cracking and breaking under the tracks.
"You know we're just going to go through this again?" Vreck said, his smile fading.
"Of coarse, it's just been another day of life in the Guard," Kursk replied, his smile never budging.